


Crash and Burn

by mr_quartermaster



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies), James Bond - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Double-O Silva, M/M, Pre-Canon, Slow Burn, intern Q
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-28 11:38:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20063410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mr_quartermaster/pseuds/mr_quartermaster
Summary: Before he became Q, Desmond was an intern at MI6 that only wanted someone to realise just how good he was. Before he became Raoul Silva, Tiago Rodriguez was an ambitious Double-O who held the world in his hands. Together, they had the power to build or destroy everything.





	Crash and Burn

The heels of his expensive leather shoes clicked against the floor as he made his way out of M’s office after debriefing. She never liked it when he took too much time to do it after his missions, but he hardly paid attention to what the old woman said, it paid off to be her favourite.

“Rodriguez.” M called just before he made it through the threshold.

The agent slowed to a stop and took a deep breath before turning around to look at the woman sitting behind that huge desk that somehow made her seem even smaller than she was. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Stay away from Q-branch. I don’t want to hear another complaint from my Quartermaster. The poor man has enough to deal with without you trying to take over his position.” She muttered in annoyance.

Tiago’s eyes widened in surprise at that and he parted his lips to speak, but the old woman beat him to it. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

The agent swallowed his words and nodded, murmuring a soft “Yes, ma’am.” before he quickly left the room.

Every MI6 employee moved out of his way. They didn’t need to do more than take a look at him to figure out just how pissed off Tiago was. There was only one young man, distracted enough not to see the agent coming his way. The bespectacled intern was carrying a pile of paperwork and struggling to make his way back to Q-branch when he accidentally ran into the already annoyed Double-O.

For Tiago, it was like bumping into a child, for the other man, it was like running face first into a wall. He stumbled back and hit the ground, papers flying everywhere. Had it not been for the fact that he actually felt bad for the boy –for he could barely be described as a man, he must’ve been fresh out of college or one of those so called geniuses that MI6 liked so much– Tiago would’ve laughed. But truly, the sight was pitiful.

“Let me help you with that.” He said, crouching down and starting to pick up a few pieces of paper, much to the young man’s surprise. He expected a ‘Thank you’ or a ‘You don’t have to do that’, but all his polite offer met was silence. Not just any silence, a stunned silence. Bright green eyes stared at him through those thick glasses. “Are you alright there?” Tiago asked tentatively, almost fearing that the boy might have had a worse fall than he initially though.

“You’re… You’re… Tiago Rodriguez. 004!”

_ Ay dios… _

What Tiago had initially mistaken for a brain injury seemed to be simple amazement. A simple look down at his badge and he discovered the reason why. He was another one of Boothroyd’s interns. When would he ever stop getting these prepubescent nerds into Q-branch? All they ever did was gawk at their equipment before accidentally breaking it. They had a higher toll than that of the Double-Os and that was something.

“Sorry.” The boy hurried to say as he pushed a strand of dark hair away from his face, grimacing slightly. “I just–I don’t usually get to talk to people like you. Well, to any kind of people really, but especially not to people like you. Not that there’s anything wrong with you–Of course there isn’t. I mean, really, just look at you. No, I just mean agents. Not any kind of agents. Field agents–well, not field agents in general. Double-Os. You guys are like really something and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Of course I don’t. I would never say anything bad about a Double-O. You’d have to have a death wish to do that, right? And I don’t. I really don’t. You see, my mother always says–”

Tiago’s hand landed on the young man’s mouth to cover it and finally silence his eternal ramble. “Will you stop talking already?” The agent scoffed, not unkindly.

“Sorry” The man muttered against his hand.

Slowly, Tiago moved it away and nodded. “One idea at a time, okay?”

“Okay.”

The agent watched the nervous young man pick up his pile of papers and shook his head lightly. “You should just hurry back to Q-branch, I’m sure old Q will need these back…” He murmured, looking down at the pages he was holding and flipping through them. There was a notebook at the bottom, with annotations that were very different than the rest.

They were all codes, but much more advanced than any he had seen in those offices. The kind of codes he had only seen the best hackers use, and they were there, in this jittery man’s notebook. His first thought was that this was Boothroyd’s notebook and the boy had stolen it, but then he realised that old Boothroyd probably didn’t even know how to use those lines of code. Not to mention that the expression on the man’s face when he realised what Tiago was looking at, told him enough.

“I’m sorry to bother you.” The young man said, suddenly looking rather protective. He snatched the notebook from the agent’s hands and quickly turned to walk away, his heart hammering in his chest.

Tiago stayed exactly where he was, he didn’t move an inch. The only thing that changed was the smirk that started tugging at his lips after the realisation dawned on him. This boy was so much more than another one of their useless interns and Tiago was determined to prove it.

He usually had a few free days to rest after a mission and this time wasn’t an exception. He stayed at home, working on how to lure the boy out and how to find out just how good he really was. He came up with a few tests, but he knew that if he didn’t make this attractive or at least fun for him, he would never get the other man to do what he wanted.

A treasure hunt, that was exactly what he came up with. It sounded childish enough, but with a few adjustments, Tiago knew that it would prove to be a challenge for any hacker.

By the time his next mission arrived, he had arranged for a blue envelope to be delivered to the intern’s flat and a second one to mysteriously appear on his desk that morning. It hadn’t been hard to find out who he was, where he lived, with who or where in Q-branch he sat exactly (Desmond Carlyle. With his fat ginger cat. On the left corner in the far back of the large office, by the mold spot on the ceiling).

After leaving everything ready for the boy, Tiago left on his mission, eager to track his progress through his own computer.

  
  


* * *

Desmond woke up to the unmistakable feeling of Turing’s whiskers rubbing against his nose. He groaned softly and tried to push the cat off his chest just to have him dig his claws and hold on tight. “Oh, c’mon… it’s still too early!” The young man grumbled, rolling onto his side.

The cat huffed softly and looked at him with wide, blue eyes before he started meowing loudly, stepping on him again. “Turing!” He groaned, finally sitting upright. “Alright! Alright!”

Turing jumped to the ground immediately and darted towards the kitchen, leaving the young man alone in his small bedroom. The intern set his feet on the cold hardwood floor and let out a loud yawn, running his fingers through his dark, tangled curls, taking a moment to wake up properly. “Coming!” He called after hearing Turing meow from the kitchen. He sighed and got up, slowly making his way to the kitchen.

“Get a cat, they said. It’ll be less demanding, they said... Should’ve gotten a hamster…” Desmond murmured to himself, narrowly avoiding stepping on Turing as the cat used his legs as slalom poles until he got his food.

It wasn’t until Desmond was sitting comfortably with a cup of Earl Grey in his hands that he noticed the blue envelope by the door. He set down the cup of tea and went to pick up the envelope. It was way too early for him to be getting mail already and the envelope looked suspiciously different. Upon picking it up, he noticed that it had some weight to it, which was even weirder.

His first thought was:

_ Bomb! _

but immediately after followed:

_ You’re not THAT important. _

What a soothing thought…

He shook his head lightly, moving back to the couch and sitting down. He examined the envelope carefully for any clues on who could’ve sent it, but all he found were some bite marks on one corner and he was pretty sure Turing was responsible for those. He didn’t find anything else, so the next step was to open the envelope. Inside, he found a piece of paper and flash drive. Bad news, as far as he could tell. He set the flash drive on the coffee table and looked at the piece of paper first. The first thing he noticed was that it wasn’t even regular paper, it was a piece of parchment.

“Not cryptic at all…” He furrowed his eyebrows and turned it around to find a message in it.

  
  


_Come and play if you are brave enough…_

“What the…” Desmond looked back and forth between the message and the flash drive for a while until he finally decided to just put them back into the envelope. Whatever that was, he didn’t want to get involved. As soon as he got ready for work and left his flat, he started looking for a bin to toss the mysterious envelope. He got rid of it outside of the subway station and tried to just forget about the matter, he had more important things to do anyway.

He had spent the last few weeks working on a design for a new security system MI6 could use. It wasn’t like anyone had asked him to do it, but he had heard Q say something about it and he immediately had come up with the idea. He was certain they would all love it.

He made it through security, walked downstairs to Q-branch and marched to old Boothroyd’s office, knocking softly before he stepped in, interrupting a meeting with another technician. “Sorry, sir. I just wanted to talk to you about our security system. I–” Desmond started, pushing his glasses up his nose, but before he could finish, Q had interrupted him.

“Don’t tell me there’s been another breach!” The old man exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air in despair.

“No, no, no!” The young intern hurried to say, shaking his head. “I just wanted to say that I’ve come up with a way to improve it.”

“Improve it?” The old man’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Did I ask you to do that?”

“Well, no–”

“Then why are you messing with that if it is not your job, boy? You are an intern, not a technician.”

“Well, I just wanted to help.” The young man tried to say, only to have Boothroyd dismiss him with a scoff.

“Help… Why don’t you go help with this?” The man said as he handed Desmond another pile of paperwork.

“But–”

“Go.”

The young man sighed and nodded before he exited the room and made a beeline for his desk. His cheeks were red from embarrassment and anger. He wished he could say that was the first time something like that happened, but he had lost count of how many times he had been dismissed for being too young or just for lacking experience. 

“You’re an intern, not a technician…” Desmond huffed as he glared at the pile of papers, mocking the old man under his breath until he caught a glimpse of blue from the corner of his eye. He reached for it only to realise that it was an envelope just like the one he had found that same morning in his flat. He furrowed his eyebrows and examined it quickly before opening it and examining its contents.

The same ominous note and a flash drive rested in it, but this time Desmond paid more attention to the drive. He had been tempted to open it that morning, but he didn’t want to end up with a virus on his computer. He could use Six’s system now though and if anything happened… Well, it was the old man’s fault for not listening to him...

Desmond glanced around to make sure no one else was paying attention before he connected the flash drive to the computer and waited impatiently for the contents to load. The screen turned black suddenly and the boy started panicking immediately. He was about to pull off the drive before an imagine popped up. A brightly coloured skull that opened and closed its jaw as if it mocked him.

Another look around and Desmond clicked on the skull, whose jaw fell off before the screen changed again. It was black again, but a message started appearing.

_>: I’ve been watching you._

The young man tried to type a response but realised that it just wasn’t possible, so he sat back and watched as more words filled the screen’s darkness.

_ >: I know you’re not as meek as you seem to be. _

_ >: You might even be dangerous. _

_ >: And I want to know just how good you really are. _

_ >: … _

_ >: So why don’t we play a game? _

Desmond’s eyes were wide as plates as he looked at the screen. He was shaking and not with fear, but with excitement. He knew this would probably end up badly for him, but that was all he had been waiting for, some way to prove just how good he really was. And whoever this person was, they were giving him the chance to do it.

_ >: I’ll make it more interesting for you. _

_ >: If you manage to get to the end of this, you’ll find out who I am. _

_ >: If not… _

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


_ >: I’ll be very disappointed. _

_ >: :( _

He couldn’t help but scoff. Whoever had gone through all this trouble to get to him really loved to be dramatic.

_ >: Where are my manners? _

_ >: You can call me Vials. _

“Vials…” He muttered under his breath. “Where have I heard that before?” He shook his head dismissively and once again watched the words fade away before the screen changed entirely. It was still black, but infested with lines and lines of code running down so fast that he could barely know what was going on. It took him a couple of seconds to realise what he was seeing and to finally get his bearings.

“Aha!” He grinned widely, his long fingers flying to the keyboard and immediately beginning to fill in the missing spaces in the lines with codes, finding them like a needle in a haystack.

* * *

Tiago watched his progress in the screen of his computer while he was on the plane. He rested his head back and raised his eyebrows in amusement, surprised to see that the boy was managing to solve the first problem so fast.

When all the lines were finally complete, the agent leaned forward, stifling a yawn, and began typing again.

_ >: Clever boy. _

_ >: That last line will lead you to your next assignment. _

_ >: Be careful though. _

_ >: And don’t tell anyone about this. _

He knew the boy would not make a single sound about it, he seemed to be enjoying himself way too much to want to spoil his own fun.

* * *

A week went by and Desmond still couldn’t get tired of the challenges Vials kept sending his way. He would stay up all night finishing one just to get to the next one before he had to go to work, or he would try and contact Vials. He had found a way to type a response despite the fact that Vials had programmed the whole thing to just work one way (Tiago had to remind himself not to underestimate the boy after that).

_ 1C4RU5: Still haven’t received the last clue. _

After making it possible for himself to communicate with the person behind those tests, Desmond had realised that he would need some kind of cool alias in case someone intercepted their communications. He might not have been an agent or MI6’s Quartermaster, but he knew better than to go throwing his name around.

_ VIALS: I’m pn it. _

_ VIALS: Beenn a bit busy. _

Tiago’s response was slow and clumsy after he had been injured in the mission, shot on the right shoulder. It was hard to type single handedly as fast as he usually did and the oxycodone didn’t really make it easy for him to stay coherent enough. He was already on his way back, but he couldn’t kick back and relax quite yet.

_ 1C4RU5: Are you drunk? _

_ VIALS: Iwished _

_ 1C4RU5: ??? _

_ VIALS: Whatb is it to you? _

_ 1C4RU5: Did that seriously just take you so long to write? _

Slow, inaccurate, not drunk… high? No. They said they wished they were drunk so they hadn’t gone and smoked something just because. Desmond rummaged around his brain for an answer until he finally found something that seemed much more rational.

_ 1C4RU5: You’re injured, aren’t you? _

Tiago could only stare at his laptop’s screen in amazement. Was he being watched? Had the boy finally found out who he really was? He raised his gaze and slowly got up from his chair, letting out a pained groan. He was fairly certain he had been thorough when he had searched the dirty hotel room for bugs or cameras, but he wasn’t so sure now.

_ 1C4RU5: You are! _

“Coño…” The agent grumbled as he slowly lowered his weight onto the chair and felt a wave of nausea wash over him. He leaned sideways and grabbed the bin by the table before he threw up the few sips of water he had taken. He grimaced and leaned back before reading Desmond’s last message.

_ VIALS: Don’t be stupid. _

He made an effort to type quickly and not make any mistakes this time, he didn’t want the boy to know he had been right.

_ 1C4RU5: Fine. The clue? _

_ VIALS: i’ll send it your way tomorrow morning. _

_ VIALS: Go to sleep, niño. _

Tiago cut the connection before Desmond could even get a chance to reply to that and slowly closed his laptop. All he wanted was to go to bed and get on the first plane back to England now that he was done there. Not that he was looking forward to a visit to Medical…

* * *

Desmond sat on his desk, bored out of his mind. He had been pushing a pen back and forth for the last hour or so and so far, that was the most interesting thing that had happened to him all day. Vials hadn’t sent the last clue so he couldn’t solve his last challenge, which basically meant he couldn’t find out who was behind them. The fact that he didn’t have a name yet didn’t mean that he didn’t have any theories. He had been eyeing suspiciously everyone lately. He had been looking for people who typed with difficulty and people who spoke more than one language, which was basically everyone who worked at Six, so that didn’t really help.

He started by discarding every single intern, because they definitely couldn’t do the stuff Vials did with computers. Secondly, people who struggled to even use a word processor, and unfortunately, that also included Q. Oh well… As long as he could narrow down the possibilities. 

The intern was about to start the next round when he heard the glass doors opening across the room and recognised a familiar face walking into Q-branch, followed by a very angry Q.

“Again, Rodriguez?!”

“They’re just toys, Q. They’re not well made and you know it.” The Double-O shrugged it off nonchalantly and continued walking even when the old man followed him and scolded him harshly.

Desmond would’ve just looked away and dismissed this, but he noticed something that grabbed his attention. Tiago’s arm was in a sling, hanging stiffly across his chest. The thought brought him back to their brief meeting last week and how the agent had grabbed his notebooks and seen the notes he had…

“Oh shit…” 

Their eyes met as the agent turned to leave Q-branch and Desmond suddenly felt the urge to go talk to him. He HAD to know if it was really him.

After quickly grabbing his notebook, the young man got up and followed the Double-O, walking as fast as he could to catch up with him. 

“004!” He called in an attempt to slow him down.

And it worked. Tiago stopped moving and turned around to look at the boy, raising his eyebrows slightly. He wasn’t sure as to why the intern would want to talk to him, but he was sure to keep any expression of worry from reaching his face. Desmond opened the notebook to a page filled with codes and offered it to him.

“You do know I do not sign autographs, don’t you?” Tiago laughed teasingly.

A dark blush crept up Desmond’s cheeks and he hurried to shake his head. “That is not what I want.” He huffed, moving the notebook closer to the agent’s face.

Tiago rolled his eyes and plucked the notebook from the intern’s hands before looking at the pages disinterestedly. “What do you want then?”

The young man took a deep breath, using all he had in him to keep his voice from shaking or cracking as he spoke. “Do you know what that is?”

“A notebook.”

“On the page, I mean.” Desmond huffed, shaking his head.

The agent’s eyebrow rose and he took a deep breath, looking down at the codes after the boy prompted him to.

“Do you know what that is then?”

“A bunch of nonsense.” Tiago laughed, shaking his head. His smile faded as soon as he saw the scowl on Desmond’s face.

“Just–” He pushed his glasses up his nose and reminded himself to stay calm. “Don’t lie. That’s all.”

Tiago’s eyebrows furrowed and he roughly grabbed the boy’s arm before dragging him towards the bathrooms. Even if the intern had used all of his weight to resist him, he wouldn’t have been able to stop the agent. “What are you doing?!” He hissed, staggering after him until they reached the bathrooms and he finally let go of his arm.

“Oh, c’mon! I bruise easily!” The intern grumbled, looking down at his arm as he pouted childishly and rubbed it. 

“So what if I know what this is?” Tiago said as if their conversation had never been interrupted by the change of location. “A bunch of codes scribbled next to a… ¿Que carajos?” He turned the notebook to show it to Desmond. “A Mickey Mouse? Really?”

“It’s deadmau5…”

“It’s what?”

“Never mind.” The young man sighed, shaking his head. “Are you Vials?”

There was a moment of silence in which the two just looked at each other and the tension was palpable, followed by the bathroom door opening and Bill Tanner rushing in. He greeted Tiago quickly before making a run for the closest urinal without giving a second thought to what was going on between the other two men.

The agent resisted the urge to roll his eyes and gave the young man a look that clearly said ‘Don’t. Go. Anywhere,’ before he stepped into one of the stalls with the notebook in his hands. Once inside, he examined the pages more carefully while he waited for Tanner to leave them alone once more. Desmond sighed and realised that he couldn’t just stand there. He walked up to the sinks and started washing his hands, his eyes fixed on his reflection in the mirror. With his hands still wet, he fixed his hair and tried to tame the few stray hairs that refused to stay down. By the time he had managed to make his hair look decent, Tanner was already drying his hands with a paper towel. The man looked in the mirror and smiled warmly at his own reflection before heading out. Desmond couldn’t help but wonder what was going through the man’s head for him not to wonder what an odd situation he had just run into.

The moment the door closed behind Tanner, Tiago stepped out of the stall, holding up the notebook. “What is this?” He asked, pointing at the last page Desmond had been working on.

Ah, finally he had the upper hand. The young man smirked victoriously. “I’ll tell you what that is if you tell me one thing.”

“What thing?” Tiago groaned in annoyance.

“Are you Vials?”

Again, silence. The agent looked at the intern for what seemed to be an eternity before he finally answered. “Yes.”

Even though he already expected that answer, Desmond couldn’t help his reaction. “Oh my god!”

Tiago simply rolled his eyes as he saw how excited the boy was just because of that. 

“I knew it! I knew it! I mean, you were always so quick when you wrote and then it got all wonky and slow and there were so many typos. So, so many. You were way too careful to suddenly start writing like that so I knew that something was wrong and then when you called me… Uhm… What did you call me? Oh yeah! Niño! Yeah! You called me that and I knew that you probably spoke some other language, but then again everyone in Six speaks like five languages so that was a nonstarter. And I was so lost, but then I saw you with Q and it all seemed to fit in perfectly and I remembered our meeting the other day, but why did you make me do all that? Was it like a secret mission? Oh my god! Am I a Double-O now? Because I’m definitely not willing to get shot at for Queen and Country. That’s a bit too extreme and it definitely looks like it hurts. How’s your shoulder by the way? Does it really hurt that much? Is it still bleeding? What happens if I poke it?”

Tiago slowly stepped forward and used his free hand to cover Desmond’s mouth tightly. “Do you ever shut up?” He whispered, leaning close to whisper into his ear.

Desmond muttered something unintelligible against his hand and the agent frowned. “What was that?” He asked before slowly moving his hand away from his mouth to let him speak, just hoping he wouldn’t start rambling again.

“I said only when I’m eating.” Desmond repeated before offering a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I got excited.”

“Does that happen every time you get excited?” Tiago asked curiously, smiling softly in amusement.

“Most of the time, yes.” The intern admitted embarrassedly as he nodded.

“I should try to keep you bored then… either that, or your mouth filled.” The agent smirked and the young man blushed all shades of scarlet, giving away too easily what was going on in his mind. 

“Oh, shut up.” He groaned softly, grabbing his notebook.

“Not a chance, I like that blush… Icarus.” Once again, he smirked and Desmond shook his head.

“It doesn’t sound nearly as good when you say it out loud.”

“No?”

“No. And neither does Vials.” The young man muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and shaking his head. “As a matter of fact, it sounds lame.”

“Lame?” Tiago scoffed, leaning back against the sink and watching the boffin nod. “How?”

“I don’t see how Vials could be a cool hacker name.”

The agent raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “That’s not what I was going for.”

Desmond furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and cocked his head to the side, making him look more like a lost puppy. “What were you going for then if it wasn’t that?”

“Mm? I was just using my name to introduce myself.”

“That is not even close to being your name. Unless you’d like to admit to actually being calle Tiago Vials Rodriguez, which would honestly make my day.” Desmond laughed softly at his own joke and soon cleared his throat in an attempt to remedy the situation when he saw that Tiago wasn’t laughing.

“Oh, you think you’re so funny don’t you?” The agent replied in a tone that made the intern realise why some men were truly afraid of him. “You only use your father’s last name. My mother’s last name is Silva.”

Desmond looked down at the floor and took a moment to process the information he had just received. “Silva… but… Oh!” He exclaimed when he finally realized. “It’s an–”

“–Anagram. Yes.” Tiago nodded and chuckled when he saw just how proud the intern looked after his discovery. 

“Okay,” Desmond admitted. “It is kind of cool.” He nodded and smiled at the Double-O.

“And here I was so worried that you wouldn’t think so.” Tiago replied sarcastically before he rolled his eyes playfully. “Well, now that you’ve spoiled the surprise, you’re not going to get that last clue.”

“What?! No!” The boy protested immediately, shaking his head. “That’s not fair! I should get an extra reward for figuring it out beforehand and without any help from you!” He scoffed, but Tiago just shook his head again.

“Nope.”

“Bollocks.”

“Hey! Language.”

“It really isn’t fair. I’ve been looking forward to that all day.” The young man admitted, shrugging.

“...Seriously?” Tiago was slightly surprised to hear that. He knew that Desmond had been enjoying his challenges, but he didn’t he liked them that much. “Are you really THAT bored?” He asked, running a hand through his dark hair.

Desmond pursed his lips and waited a moment before he finally gave in and nodded. “Yeah…” There was no point in hiding it. “I don’t have much to do here other than paperwork.” 

“The fact that they make you do that instead of letting you do the important stuff is just criminal. But I guess that’s just old Boothroyd, huh?”

The intern nodded softly in response, evidently upset. Tiago felt compelled by this, something that hardly ever happened. He sighed and decided to give in.

“I’ll tell you what. I won’t give you that last clue, but I’ll buy you dinner in exchange.”


End file.
